Think twice before giving kids mind-altering drugs

TRINH T. LE

Published 6:00 pm, Tuesday, December 12, 2000

It did not take long for me to believe that. I only needed to look around the schools, community, circle of friends — to realize that we live in a society of vast opportunities and temptations, with great expectations and an even greater freedom to exercise our many rights and privileges. The right to free speech (my favorite), to go to any church we choose, to vote, to buy over-the-counter drugs (even prescribed drugs). That's right. Drugs.

Rights and privileges, if exercised excessively and abusively, can result in unfavorable circumstances that could adversely affect our lives, our mental health. Mental well-being has become a luxury in today's society, as a growing many of us walk on a thin line of tolerance and sanity.

The holiday season further magnifies the problem.

If you'll recall recent newspaper reports about the prevalent problem of prescribed drugs in schools, most notably Ritalin, a drug used to control hyperactivity and disruptive behavior in children with attention deficit disorders. Many students get so addicted to the drug, they trade lunch money with fellow classmates for the pills. Some parents and teachers even get impatient dealing with the children, giving no second thought before sending their kids to the school nurse for the drug.

"Today psychiatry is almost unilaterally fixated on using drugs as the treatment for mental problems. Its press-button, quick-fix mentality is now also heavily reflected in community attitudes towards drugs," according to "Psychiatry: A Human Rights Abuse and Global Failure," a documentary by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, an international watchdog for mental health.

The watchdog group brought psychiatry's abuse of children to public notice by testifying before legislative hearings, holding workshops for legislators and holding its own public hearings. Parents in many school communities have repeatedly testified about being threatened with their child's removal from school unless the child is taking some form of psychiatric drug, according to the CCHR report.

CCHR's efforts and the public outcry worked, as some education state boards, including the Colorado State Board of Education, earlier this year passed legislation calling on teachers to use academic rather than drug solutions for behavior, attention and learning difficulties in the classroom.

Calling ADD/ADHD (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorders) an "underpinning wave of drug abuse” in the United States, the Council of Europe called for a study on the diagnosing of ADHD and to establish possible legal measures to “curtail the abuse of psychiatric drugs by children,” the CCHR report says.

Let's hope the next time our local teachers and parents consider sending their child to the school nurse for Ritalin or other mind-altering drugs, that they be reminded that the drugs are addictive, psychiatric stimulants that are biochemically similar to cocaine. The drugs are no less an easy way out, a “quick fix” for the kids while the teachers and parents can have a temporary moment of peace.

As the late Dr. Sydney Walker III, a neurologist and psychiatrist and a critic of ADHD and child drugging, put it: “Hyperactivity is not a disease. It's a hoax perpetrated by doctors who have no idea what's really wrong with these children.”